Artist Spotlight - John Pomara

Digital Dating no. 7, 2007

oil enamel on aluminum

36’’ x 48”

John Pomara is an artist and professor of Painting at the University of Texas Dallas.  He recently exhibited part of his “Digital Dating” series at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, Texas in the group exhibit “Silent Transmissions”.   Like the other contributing artists to this exhibit, Pomara’s work has a distinct connection to technology and the impact that technology has on human perception and experience.  On viewing Pomara’s art I grasped the immediately recognizable connection to computer circuitry and digital imagery.  However, I was even more deeply intrigued by the remnants for the artist’s hand seen in the scraped or “pulled” layered surfaces that are characteristic of Pomara’s technique. 

You can watch a full length interview of the artists discussing his work below in the “Art This Week” video posted to Vimeo by Richard Serrano.

Art This Week Interviews-John Pomara from Richard Serrano on Vimeo.

Artist Spotlight – James Marshall

Large Works:
glazed ceramic,
approx. 28" x 26" x 4”

James Marshall is a ceramic artist and college instructor from Santa Fe, NM.   He recently exhibited a group of large ceramic works at the Cole Art Center in Nacogdoches, Texas that he calls “Liminal Objects”.  In his artist statement Marshall explains:

“If subliminal means that which is below the threshold of ordinary consciousness and perception, then the liminal is the point of emergence, the threshold itself, the turning point between one realm and another. The liminal state is characterized by ambiguity, openness, and indeterminacy. Liminality is a period of transition, during which usual boundaries of thought, self-understanding, and behavior shift, opening the way to something new.” 

Marshall creates bold monolithic ceramic sculptures coated in bright primary and secondary colored glazes.  From a distance the glazes appear to be a solid gloss of color, but on closer inspection divides into subtle shifts of texture and hue creating added interest to the simple but massive forms.  You can see more of Marshall’s work on his website at http://www.jamesmarshallart.com/index.html .